I don't know about everywhere, but, for instance, here in Iowa City alcohol is allowed at the designated (univserity owned) tailgating parking lots, but you have to get rid of it before setting foot onto the public sidewalks. And there is security at the exits to make sure you do get rid of it.

that is close to everywhere. In East Lansing and Ann Arbor for example...you can drink in designated areas such as parking lots or private yards, but you will be ticketed if you even touch sidewalks, roads, etc, which are the possession of the city.

They have to be good at risk their foriegn policy is essetailly getting involed in wars, then having us cover their asses and then they can say they win. Which sounds like a great risk strategy because you could leave for 10 hours and still win.

However, its athletic department is very small. I remember in the 1980's the University of Michigan Marching Band played at half time in the Blue Bowl which was a game between U of T and their rival York University. The band had more people than there were fans in the stands.

Well at least Toronto has the hockey team going for it. As for football, they actually do have a Canadian rules team (their website). Plus they're a flagship public school and occupy a city with a city of 2.6 million (5.5 million for the metro area). There are lots of obstacles involved of course, but they are virgin territory for expansion. Arguably you get more out of investing 80 million in Toronto than some of the other options out there, aka the second coming of Maryland.

It really isn't any different than letting UVa in and most of us want UVa. You just trade basketball for hockey and the football is subpar either way (plus we don't really need more football schools). The other bonus is if Toronto joins every B1G fan instantly becomes a supporter of going back to the old system where you only needed a driver's license as the border instead of the passport or passport card BS.

Unlikely to happen of course given a number of issues, but I'd welcome them.

I figure the real incentive would be if the Canadian government signalled that if the conference took Toronto, B1G schools would be prefered targets for Canadian research funds. For example right now Canada has a deal where they fund fellowships at various schools, including some of the Ivy League and everyone meets in Toronto every year for some giant conference. If Canadia signalled that in exchange for cutting Toronto in on 20 million a year in BTN revenue, they'd work primarily with the B1G, it would create a massive incentive to overcome whatever obstacles are involved with being an international conference. Canada for example would be extremely useful right now with the American government not passing out grants (and actually asking for money to be given back in some cases).

You guys are interested in something that would fill the cellar with more schlock? The UofT football team would likely get beat, easily, by any of your top tier high school teams and I say that with absolutely no hesitation or sarcasm. The rest I don't know about, but I do know the football team is a perennial lower than cellar dwellar.

If you guys are adding it just for markets sake, the BIG network is already widespread here in Canada on most major providers.

I'd guess a lot of students would be cool to adding U of T. Maybe U. of Windsor too!.

In all seriousness though, I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea. Now that the expansion cat is out of the bag, I think Toronto is just as valid as many of the American schools that keep coming up in discussion. They may not have much of a football team now but there is no reason they couldn't build up a program in 10 years or so. And in the meantime, I could live witht the easy victories and the interesting road trip.

I agree that this could work. The city of Toronto is in need of "American" football. They would just need a few years of recruiting in every sport before competing. Currently Canadian university hockey teams are loaded with former OHL players that according to NCAA rules would not be eligible as the OHL is considered professional in the eyes of the NCAA

Toronto would have an NFL team if its ratings translated into $$$ in the U.S. U.S networks do not benefit from Toronto. Canadian channels override U.S. channels during commericals so U.S. advertisers see little value. The problem is that Toronto doesn't count towards rating points. The more rating points, the higher they can sell the broadcast to the networks.

Toronto would benefit the Big Ten even less than Maryland and Rutgers, which is really tough to believe.

I thought the NFL thing was due to Canadian protectism of the CFL. Last time an American league tried to place a team in Canada, the PM at the time threatened to pass an act to block it (good old Pierre Trudeau). The MLB and NHL make money despite the TV situation. You cited the downside of it, but the upside of it is that you can sell the same commercial spot twice, one American ad and one Canadian ad. As for rating points, having Toronto playing will boost the Canadia ratings and let you charge the Canadian advertisers more. Beside rating points are less and less important as people start streaming more and we can provide exact demograghic data based on the BTN2Go accounts that are pulling down the stream. Lets get in on those lucrative Canadian Tire dollars!

With regards to commercials, we are still waiting to see the Superbowl commercials from twenty years ago. During the Superbowl we are subjected to watching a Zamboni clean off a Canadian Tire logo when you get to watch Kate Upton washing her car.

I'm not sure it fair to use the NFL as an example when referencing TV ratings becuase much of the NFL is available on broadcast TV like NBC & Fox. Much of college football is on cable channels that are paid for whether anyone is watching or not.

If the B1G network can into the market first and gain access to Torontonian (and potentially greater Canadian) cable subscription packages, the financial windfall may easily override whatever is being lost via advertising revenue because of low ratings.

Sports is not a big deal in Canadian universities. Even in hockey - if you are a serious hockey player you will play Junior `A' or, if you want to go to school too, you'll accept a scholarship to a US university. (I played hockey when I was an undergrad at U of Toronto, and I'm not very good.)

Besides the football team using Canadian rules, there is also the issue of scholarships. There are very few athletic scholarships to be had at U of T. Many have academic requirements appended, and they are capped at $3,500 per year.

Of course, U. of T. may decide to change all that. But I don't see much of an upside from an administrative point of view. Massive big-money athletic departments like those in US universities bring as many headaches as they do benefits. If you already have one (Rutgers, Maryland) it might make sense to maximize exposure etc. But this is a choice between not having big time athletics at all versus making the investment of time, money, and revolutionizing campus attitudes to get big time athletics.

Not to mention that if some misguided administrator proposed the bright idea of engaging U. of T. with athletics to the degree major American universities are engaged, the faculty and most of the students would revolt. It is just a different culture in Canadian universities, in this regard.

"Not only would you have fan support from the city of Toronto but a lot of fans all over Canada would cheer on the Varsity Blue’s.[sic]"

This writer clearly knows little of Canada. There isn't much affection for Toronto outside of Toronto.

While I agree that sports in Canadian universities is a decidedly different animal (I visit a co-author at Queens a fair bit, which is a major Canadian school with athletic facilities worse than my high school), I do think that (imo) there could be some compelling reasons for UT to join.

1) Candian funding of academic institutions ain't what it used to be. The endowments relative to their US counterparts suck and, like it or not, there is strong empirical evidence that the success of sports teams (including those beyond American Football) drive annual giving,

2) While it might be tough to recruit football players, having a Canadian school in a US conference would be huge for UT, since their athletes would not need to leave Canada to complete at a high amateur level.

As such, a model which leaves out football for now, focusing on olympics + hockey and maybe hoops could over time be pretty successful especially when hockey games would generate good interest and ratings.

Football has taken off in the city, because U of Montreal decided to take it seriously a few years back. Now it is the hottest ticket outside the Habs in the city by far. McGill is a beautiful campus & excellent school with a very old football tradition that they completely ignore. Too bad. Team brutal, gameday is like being inside a sealed tomb but with less atmosphere.

U of T is a big school. No way would they ever be able to handle a B1G athletic program. Schollies alone would ignite a national 'debate'. And no-one outside of Toronto would ever cheer for them.

I live within walking distance of the UT football field. Every winter they put up a big temporary dome in the middle of the field (I believe for golf). Fans walking along the street can see through the fence to the field. They do however occasionally cover up the fence.

It'd be great to see a Michigan game in Toronto, even if it was 73-0 in the second quarter.

Canada does produce the occasional NFL player like former Wolverine Tshimanga Biakabutuka (whose family moved to suburban Montreal from Zaire when he was 4).

UofT would probably be at a D2 level at best right now and I'm not really sure how the fan support is in Canada for colleges. My ignorant point of view is that people from Ontario only care about the OHL and the future demise of college hockey.

However...we all know expansion isn't about athletics anymore. If they can bring in research dollars and Delaney can force BTN into the Toronto TV market they might do it anyway

Although a few years of playing at UM, PennSt and OSU would fill the coffers to start doing upgrades. Local support wouldn't be there though. I am in Windsor and can tell you its hard to get our local paper to follow anything NCAA football wise, and I could literally throw a rock at Detroit.

Like I said previously, the BIG Network is on all the major cable and satellite networks and you generally have your choice of which major US cities you get, generally Detroit or Buffalo or Boston in the East, and Seattle in the West.